ABSTRACT
In order to improve the cure rate of critically ill patients in Wuhan epidemic area and reduce the fatality rate, the state have dispatched medical staffs from the whole country to support Wuhan and treat critically ill patients in dedicated facilities. A medical team from the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, consisting of 133 medical staffs major in critical care medicine, respiralogy, infection, cardiology, and general surgery, entirely took over the critical care unit of the East Hospital of the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, and formed a multidisciplinary collaboration team with local medical staffs to treat patients together. Up to March 13th in 2020, the author's medical team has admitted a total of 109 patients, of which 48 had been discharged up on recovery. Critically ill patients with Corona Virus Disease 2019 mainly have elder age, comorbidities, complicated conditions, and difficult diagnosis and treatment. The author and the author's team combined with clinical practice, share experience and strategies of general surgery related issues in the treatment of critically ill patients, providing reference for collegues in general surgery.Copyright © 2020 by the Chinese Medical Association.
ABSTRACT
During the COVID-19 pandemic, stock markets were fragile and sensitive to downside news regardless of whether the news was true. In China, stock rumours are increasingly rampant, affecting the sound development of the capital market. By manually gathering a sample of rumours about Chinese A-share firms, this paper studies the effects of stock market rumours and the corresponding rumour clarifications on stock returns. The study suggests that rumours rely on the information environment to persuade the market through the media effect. In terms of information disclosure, for firms that previously disclosed "negative news”, stock prices would experience abnormal drops when negative rumours appear. In terms of the media effect, rumours released by leading media cause even more significant abnormal fluctuations in stock prices. Further study shows that positive rumours significantly cause an abnormal rise in state-owned enterprises' stock prices, while negative rumours significantly cause an abnormal decline in small and medium enterprise board (SME) and growth enterprise market board (GEM) stock prices. From the perspective of the effect of clarification announcements in restraining stock price fluctuations, clear and timely clarifications are recommended. © 2023 Elsevier Inc.
ABSTRACT
Objective: To investigate the clinical characteristics, treatment and outcome of elderly patients with COVID-19. Methods: We made a retrospective analysis of the clinical data of elderly patients with COVID-19 admitted by the National Anti-epidemic Medical Team of The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University in Department of the seventh ward of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University between February 9 and March 15, 2020. We fully extracted the patients' demographics, epidemiological characteristics, clinical manifestations, laboratory examination, imaging performance, treatment and outcomes. Results: In this study we included a total of 30 patients(18 males and 12 females), with an average age of(71.1±14.4) years. Their underlying diseases included cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases(23 patients), chronic pulmonary disease(3 patients), digestive disease(2 patients), diabetes mellitus(3 patients), and chronic kidney disease(1 patients). Before admission, 22 patients received oral medication. The initial symptoms were fever and cough. The peak body temperature averaged(38.4±0.6)℃ The mean time from symptom onset to hospitalization was 15.0±7.7 days. The clinical classification was mainly severe type in 26 patients(87%). Laboratory examination revealed lower lymphocyte count(0.7±0.2)×109/L, and higher blood D-D dimer lever(6.9±13)μg/L. Serum lactate dehydrogenase(LDH) significantly increased(310±136)U/L. Serum C-reactive protein(61±52)mg/L and erythrocyte sedimentation rate(ESR)(66±38)mmol/L slightly increased. Imaging performance revealed that diffuse lesions were located in bilateral pulmonary parenchyma(22 patients) and in single pulmonary parenchyma(7 patients). Ground-glass opacity was found in all the patients, and the average number of CT examination during hospitalization was 3.5±1.3. Viral load revealed that nucleic acid in nasopharyngeal swabs of 30 patients was all positive, nucleic acid in the feces of 6 patients was positive, and nucleic acid in nasopharyngeal swab of 1 patient was positive, whose nucleic acid in alveolar lavage fluid was negative. Serum IgG antibody level was(157.5±29.2)AU/mL and IgM antibody level was(69.0±148.7)AU/mL. Complications included ARDS in 5 patients, AKI in 5 patients, cardiac injury in 3 patients, shock in 2 patients, nosocomial infection in 3 patients, coagulation disorder in 3 patients, and gastrointestinal bleeding in 3 patients. Finally, 5 patients received non-invasive mechanical ventilation and 2 patients received invasive mechanical ventilation. Another 2 patients underwent CRRT and 1 patient received CRRT plus ECMO. Of the 3 patients with critical type, 2 died and 1 survived. There were 25 patients who turned from severe type into normal type/light type, and 1 patient finally died(turned from severe type into critical type). In the end, 15 patients were cured and discharged. The average time of viral nucleic acid from positive to negative was 12.4±5.6 and the average time of lesion absorption in computer tomography was 16.9±5.8 days. The total hospital stay was 22.9±8.1 days, and the 28-day mortality rate was 6.7%. Conclusion: COVID-19 in elderly patients is mostly severe and its initial symptoms are still fever and cough. Patients should be immediately hospitalized when symptoms develop. The time of viral nucleic acid transformation and imaging improvement is longer than that of others. The mortality in critically ill patients is higher than that of others. Clinicians should pay more attention to the elderly people. © 2021, Editorial Board of Journal of Xi'an Jiaotong University (Medical Sciences). All right reserved.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns led to a sharp drop in socio-economic activities in China in 2020, including reductions in fossil fuel use, industry productions, and traffic volumes. The short-term impacts of lockdowns on China's air quality have been measured and reported, however, the changes in anthropogenic emissions have not yet been assessed quantitatively, which hinders our understanding of the causes of the air quality changes during COVID-19. Here, for the first time, we report the anthropogenic air pollutant emissions from mainland China by using a bottom-up approach based on the near-real-time data in 2020 and use the estimated emissions to simulate air quality changes with a chemical transport model. The COVID-19 lockdown was estimated to have reduced China's anthropogenic emissions substantially between January and March in 2020, with the largest reductions in February. Emissions of SO2, NOx, CO, non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), and primary PM2.5 were estimated to have decreased by 27ĝ€¯%, 36ĝ€¯%, 28ĝ€¯%, 31ĝ€¯%, and 24ĝ€¯%, respectively, in February 2020 compared to the same month in 2019. The reductions in anthropogenic emissions were dominated by the industry sector for SO2 and PM2.5 and were contributed to approximately equally by the industry and transportation sectors for NOx, CO, and NMVOCs. With the spread of coronavirus controlled, China's anthropogenic emissions rebounded in April and since then returned to the comparable levels of 2019 in the second half of 2020. The provinces in China have presented nearly synchronous decline and rebound in anthropogenic emissions, while Hubei and the provinces surrounding Beijing recovered more slowly due to the extension of lockdown measures. The ambient air pollution presented much lower concentrations during the first 3 months in 2020 than in 2019 while rapidly returning to comparable levels afterward, which have been reproduced by the air quality model simulation driven by our estimated emissions. China's monthly anthropogenic emissions in 2020 can be accessed from 10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5214920.v2 (Zheng et al., 2021) by species, month, sector, and province. © Copyright:
ABSTRACT
The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has quickly swept through China, and mass internal migration during the Chinese Spring Festival is now widely blamed for this. This statement, we argue, is misleading. Internal migrants should not be held responsible for the initial spread of COVID-19, as those cities first affected are megacities that connect with the epicentre Wuhan more with regard to business and tourism than migration. The scale of the epidemic can only be partially explained by internal migration. Severe outbreaks are not limited to cities that neighbour Hubei Province and that have large migration to Wuhan. They also occurred in provincial capitals that are neither contiguous with Hubei nor connected with Wuhan in terms of migration. Even though a few cities far away from the epicentre were hit severely by COVID-19 due to migration, the major contributor is not the migrant job seekers but business people. The responsibility of spreading COVD-19 so fast, on such a large scale and so far is by no means fully on internal migrants. © The Author(s) 2020.
ABSTRACT
In order to improve the cure rate of critically ill patients in Wuhan epidemic area and reduce the fatality rate, the state have dispatched medical staffs from the whole country to support Wuhan and treat critically ill patients in dedicated facilities. A medical team from the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, consisting of 133 medical staffs major in critical care medicine, respiralogy, infection, cardiology, and general surgery, entirely took over the critical care unit of the East Hospital of the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, and formed a multidisciplinary collaboration team with local medical staffs to treat patients together. Up to March 13th in 2020, the author's medical team has admitted a total of 109 patients, of which 48 had been discharged up on recovery. Critically ill patients with Corona Virus Disease 2019 mainly have elder age, comorbidities, complicated conditions, and difficult diagnosis and treatment. The author and the author's team combined with clinical practice, share experience and strategies of general surgery related issues in the treatment of critically ill patients, providing reference for collegues in general surgery. Copyright © 2020 by the Chinese Medical Association.
Subject(s)
Coronavirus Infections/prevention & control , Gynecology/organization & administration , Medical Staff , Obstetrics/organization & administration , Pandemics/prevention & control , Personal Protective Equipment , Pneumonia, Viral/prevention & control , Betacoronavirus , COVID-19 , Female , Hospitals , Humans , Pregnancy , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
Objective: To explore the necessity and safety of selective endoscopy to detect gastrointestinal (GI) malignancy during the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods: A retrospective cohort study was carried out to analyze the clinical data of selective endoscopy performed at the Endoscopic Center, Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University from February 20 to March 6, 2020. Clinical data included epidemiological questionnaire, chief complaints, endoscopic findings and biopsy pathology results, etc. All medical staff had blood test for IgM/IgG antibodies of COVID-19. Patients and their families were followed up by phone to determine whether they were infected with COVID-19. Meanwhile, the clinical data of selective endoscopy during the same period from February 20 to March 6, 2019 were collected as the control group to compare the overall results of endoscopy examinations during the epidemic and the detection rate of GI malignancy. Results: A total of 911 patients underwent endoscopy in the epidemic period group, and a total of 5746 cases in the control group, which was 6.3 times over the epidemic period group. In the epidemic period group, 544 cases received gastroscopy and 367 cases received colonoscopy, while 3433 cases received gastroscopy and 2313 cases received colonoscopy in the control group, which were both 6.3 times of epidemic period group. Gastroscopy revealed that 39 patients (7.2%) were diagnosed with upper GI malignancies in the epidemic period group and 77 patients (2.2%) in the control group with significant difference (χ(2)=40.243, P<0.001). The detection rate of gastric cancer in these two groups was 3.3% (n=18) and 1.7% (n=59) respectively with significant difference (χ(2)=6.254,P=0.012). The detection rate of esophageal cancer was 3.7% (n=20) and 0.5% (n=18) respectively with significant difference (χ(2)=49.303,P<0.001). Colonoscopy revealed that colorectal cancer was found in 32 cases (8.7%) of the epidemic period group and 88 cases (3.8%) of the control group with significant difference (χ(2)=17.888, P<0.001). During the epidemic period, no infection of medical staff was found through the blood test of IgM/IgG antibodies on COVID-19. No patient and family members were infected with COVID-19 by phone follow-up. Conclusion: Compared with the same period in 2019, the number of selective endoscopy decreases sharply during the epidemic period, while the detection rate of various GI malignant tumors increases significantly, which indicates that patients with high-risk symptoms of GI malignancies should still receive endoscopy as soon as possible. Provided strict adherence to the epidemic prevention standards formulated by the state and professional societies, it is necessary to carry out clinical diagnosis and treatment as soon as possible.